Ta-Tanisha Harrell said she moved to Montclair from East Orange so her children could grow up in a safer neighborhood.

But that sense of calm has proven elusive because the area in which Harrell lives, around Elmwood Avenue and Mission Street, has been the scene of three shootings this summer, including one early Tuesday.

In that barrage of gunfire, four teenagers and a 20-year-old were shot just after 1 a.m. as they were walking along Mission Street. Law enforcement officials are calling it a targeted attack because two of the victims had been shot at a block away, on Elmwood Avenue, last month.

Neither was injured in that incident.

Naji Love, 18, who authorities say was the target of both shootings, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest in Tuesday’s violence. She was listed in stable condition at University Hospital in Newark, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said, breathing through a ventilator.

The other victim of the two shootings, 20-year-old Terill Vaxter, was shot in the arm Tuesday. Two other males, ages 18 and 17, also suffered non life-threatening injuries.

Timear Haley, 18, was shot in the buttocks. The 17-year-old Newark boy was shot in the leg. He was not named because of his age.

During a morning press conference at town hall, Montclair Police Deputy Chief Todd Conforti identified the three adult victims by name and confirmed the shooting was being investigated as a targeted attack. He called it "an unfortunate incident," but one that would be solved.

Harrell said the shooting wasn’t a surprise.

"Over the past two years, it’s just getting horrible," she said. "If I wanted to be in the ‘hood, I would have stayed in the ‘hood. Instead, the ‘hood came to me."

Vaxter, who was treated at University Hospital and released, was back Montclair home by the afternoon, a bandage wrapped around his injured arm.

He said he and his three friends were returning home from a nearby Shell station, where they had bought some soft drinks. Suddenly, a man approached and opened fire, spraying nine rounds at the group, he said. The gunman had on a shirt that was covering his face, Vaxter said.

Video: Four shot in Montclair shooting police call "targeted" Four people were shot Tuesday morning in a section of Montclair where neighbors say ongoing violence has been a problem for several months. The Essex County Prosecutor's office said three men and a woman were shot on Mission Street around 1 a.m. The woman is in serious condition, Essex County Chief of Detectives Anthony Ambrose said. The men have non-life threatening injuries. The early-morning shooting marks the third in the neighborhood this summer. (Video by MIchael Monday/The Star-Ledger)

Conforti said the gunman, who remains at large, appeared either from behind a parked car or behind bushes before opening fire, then fled.

"I turned my back and started running, but I had to help my friend. She started slumping down," Vaxter said, referring to Love, who sustained the most serious injuries.

Vaxter — who like Love and Haley is from Montclair — said he didn’t recognize the gunman and didn’t know why he may have been a target. Vaxter remembers the gunman shooting and walking toward the group, where he and Love had been standing a few paces behind their friends.

Witnesses told police they saw someone run down the street and flee into a dark-colored vehicle after the gunfire.

The gunman in the July 24 shooting on Elmwood Avenue was also described as having something covering his face. In that incident, the man sprang from the bushes before opening fire, authorities said. He remains at-large.

Montclair Mayor Robert Jackson said the scene of Tuesday’s shooting, just south of Bloomfield Avenue and about a mile east of the well manicured million-dollar homes for which the township is known, has been "historically troubled" with drugs, gangs and violence.

Montclair police had already stepped up patrols around Mission Street, Jackson said, but "clearly, we’ve got to do more."

Of the three shootings in that area this summer, police have arrested the two men they say are responsible for a non-fatal shooting on June 1, also on Mission Street.

A woman who lives in front of the scene of shooting two weeks ago on Elmwood remembers Love jumping into her backyard to flee the gunfire, then later apologizing.

In response to Tuesday’s attack, Montclair police will increase patrols in the area, Conforti said, and had already deployed its street-cime unit.